Dennis Rodman was a key figure for two different elite teams in the 90s. He won two championships with the Detroit Pistons, where he made his name as a top-tier defender who brought it every night. That reputation eventually landed him with the Chicago Bulls, where he won 3 more championships, bringing his total to 5.
One of the key things about Dennis Rodman was that he was always viewed as an eccentric personality off the court. In a recent interview with Mychal Denzel Smith of GQ, Dennis Rodman revealed that David Robinson even called him “the devil” as he was “different from everybody”.
Dennis says that one time, on the team plane, Robinson interrupted Dennis while he was playing Nintendo with a teammate. “I said, ‘David? Why you looking at me?’ ” Dennis remembers. “He said, ‘Why you got to be the devil all the time?’ I said, ‘What? The devil? What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘You just got to be different from everybody.’ ”
On the Chicago Bulls though, Dennis Rodman’s differences were accepted by his coach and his teammates, and it is mentioned that Phil Jackson “was lenient” and “trusted Dennis” to do what was required “on his own time”. As it is well known and stated below, this arrangement “worked for three championships”. Dennis Rodman quipped that the Chicago Bulls had the “greatest player” in Michael Jordan, the “second greatest” in Scottie Pippen, and “the devil” in himself.
After two seasons in San Antonio, Dennis was traded, in 1995, to the Chicago Bulls, who were in need of a rebounder. Phil Jackson admits that Rodman wasn’t exactly a front–runner for the role. “I think Derrick Coleman was the first on the list that I had,” says Jackson. (And Dennis? “He was down at the bottom of the list.”) The franchise understood that in order to get the full value of Dennis Rodman on the court, they had to let him be who he was off of it. The team hired a retired police officer to be by his side at all times and made sure he attended sessions with the team psychologist, which was somewhat of a rarity in the 1990s. Like Daly, Jackson became something of a father figure, and he didn’t sweat the stuff that had made Dennis’s tenure with the Spurs so tumultuous. Dennis was late to practice all the time, missed shootarounds and game film sessions. But Jackson was lenient. He trusted Dennis to work out every day and study film on his own time. Dennis didn’t do hard drugs, but he drank and partied every night, becoming a fixture of Chicago nightlife, and then showed up for every game (when he wasn’t suspended) to give the team everything he had. It worked for three championships. “You got the greatest basketball player on the planet,” says Dennis of Michael Jordan, “the second greatest in Scottie Pippen, and then you got the devil.”
There is no doubt that Dennis Rodman’s time with the Chicago Bulls was successful, and a lot of that had to do with his team’s acceptance of who he was. Dennis Rodman still has a good relationship with Michael Jordan to this day, and previously stated that he’d hang out at Michael Jordan’s house in Fort Lauderdale to “see what’s up”. The same goes for Scottie Pippen, who stated that he still hangs with Dennis Rodman today.
The Chicago Bulls were the most successful dynasty in the 90s, winning 6 championships and two 3-peats. Dennis Rodman was key for that happening, and they wouldn’t have won the second 3-peat without his rebounding and defense. Rodman was a crucial figure for the Bulls, and he’s certainly a legend in Chicago.
